Thomas Mann Collection

Thomas Mann, a German novelist and essayist, was born in Lubeck in 1875. He published his first collection of short stories, Der kleine Herr Friedemann in 1898, and his first novel, Buddenbrooks in 1901. His other novels include Der Zauberberg (1924), Joseph und sein Bruder (1933-1943), Doktor Faustus (1947), Der Erwahlte (1951), and Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull. Mann also wrote a number of short stories including Tonio Kroger (1903), Tristan (1903), Der Tod in Venedig (1912) and Mario und der Zauberer (1930). Mann often wrote about the isolation of the artist and the conflict between artists and others. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1929.

Mann married Katia Pringsheim in 1905, and together they had six children. Mann fled Germany after Adolf Hitler assumed power, and settled in Switzerland, where he criticized the Nazi government from afar. In 1938, Mann immigrated to the United States. He lectured at Princeton University and throughout the United States, and continued to publish. In 1942, he moved to Pacific Palisades, California and took up residence among several other prominent German exiles. In 1944, he became an American citizen, but in 1952 returned to Switzerland, after being accused of having Communist affliations. He died in 1955 in Kilchberg, near Zurich.